to go out at their own expense to Hispaniola, and to serve for a certain
time under the orders of the admiral. The remembrance of this advice on
his part, might well have shamed Columbus from saying, as he did three
years afterwards, in his most emphatic manner, "I swear that numbers of
men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water from God or man." It
is but fair, however, to mention, that Las Casas, speaking of the
colonists who went out under these conditions, says, "I have known some of
them in these islands, even of those who had lost their ears, whom I
always found sufficiently honest men."


"REPARTIMIENTOS."

In 1497, letters patent were issued from the Sovereigns to the admiral,
authorizing him to grant repartimientos of the lands in the Indies to the
Spaniards. It is noticeable that in this document there is no mention of
Indians, so that they had not come to form portion of a repartimiento at
this period. The document in question is of a formal character, expressed
in the style of legal documents of the present day, by virtue of which the
fortunate Spaniard who gets the land is "to have, and to hold, and to
possess," and so forth; and is enabled "to sell and to give, and to
present, and to traffic with, and to exchange, and to pledge, and to
alienate, and to do with it and in it all that he likes or may think good."

While the acts of legislation above narrated, which cannot be said to have
been favourable to good government in the Indies, were being framed at the
Court of Spain, Don Bartholomew Columbus was doing much in his
administration of Hispaniola that led to very mischievous results.

Before the admiral left the island, he had discovered some mines to the